Guild Wars 2

So Jonathan, the week is almost over, do you have news?

The thing is that J. Sharp begins his commentary hoping we had a great break…, no Jonathan, we have beeing here playing your game for several hours each day while you were out and while you left your work undone for a pair of weeks (beacuase seems nobody cares about sPvP from Anet but you)…

The problem here is that we have a feel of abandon… a feel that any small change on sPvP system take 3-4 months to be achieved… seems a problem of spend money and resources on PvP area… we, on the pvp community, are less each day, and seems there will be worthless any investment on this area each passing day.

If you want an e-sport you need to dedicate more resources NOW, not in 6 months… when the lack of people playing your game would start to be a problem.

Jest.9276:

Aragiel.6132:

HappinessFactory.4910:

Idk how people can be dissatisfied with Johnathen’s post. There’s new stuff being implemented, hello 1 round matches anyone?

I mean… kitten guys, the february patch isnt even close to being out yet. cool ur kittens.

“There isnt anything we didnt already know”

A: No there’s plenty of stuff we didnt know in that post, a lot of it was suggested but none confirmed and written. rread the kitten post

still it doesnt mean that they can´t do something really quick as temporary solution..

or do you want to wait till maybe Feb / march (date wasn´t confirmed) and see the changes? what if they will not be that good? what if till that time playerbase will be so small that it doesnt make sense anymore?

Actually, what prevents them from doing something “really quick” is that all of these changes require coding that can cause bugs. Remember that temp fix for WvW’s culling issue? Screwed things up even more so they reverted. The only reason that was even attempted is because they don’t have the proper amount of people in-house to test culling fixes themselves.

Another thing to keep in mind is, there is NO sub fee. So there’s no harm in things taking awhile to be fixed because no one is being charged for access to the game. There’s also absolutely nothing preventing players who’ve taken a break from coming back. They just have to launch the client, patch up, and test it out. They like it, they keep playing, they don’t, they stop until the next patch.

I dont think that adjusting entry fee in paid tournaments or any different kind of adjusting will require some “serious” coding. Actually these are numbers in databases and program call them via variables..
And speaking about adjustments there is few options what Anet can do fast in order to try FORCE premades to play against PREMADES and leave solo players in better enviroment where they compette against other solo players.
Yes im speaking free tournaments vs paids. If there is adjustment done, then paids can be pretty much used as premade queue while free is solo queue.
coding? no..
options?
1) decrease entry fee of paids
2) increase free rewards in terms of tickets gains
3) adjust crafting of tournaments tickets so its easier to craft one

The only thing what prevents them to do so is because there are probably some players that spends money for buying tickets.. and if thats the reason then .. well.. then we are in pretty bad position. Altought i dont know who would be that stu-…pid to spend real money for tickets..

Raebfle.5914:

After deciphering this, I have to ask… have you played WoW arena system? For over 12 months that crap has been so freaking unbalanced and unfair. They have a matchmaking system, that won’t even match you properly. Unfortunately they also have tier levels of PvP gear which doesn’t make it even playing field at all until you get to 2k+ rating, that is of course, if you can even make it that far. If they’re going to base PvP off ANY game, I strongly suggest not using WoW.

Though, if anything, people need to be patient and not so demanding. It will happen when it happens, and getting on the dev’s cases won’t push the fact through any faster. They’re probably doing the best they can, and if you can’t be patient then perhaps gaming isn’t the hobby for you -shrugs-

-casually waits for the nerdrage to begin-

Please, dont, Blizzard is a few light years ahead in competition. Their pve game has much more pvp content than Anet’s PvP game.

They trying to balance game for PVP (even they true and real balance is for raid’s).

On the other hand what we got here????

Anet’s big pvp game without pvp (there is one abandoned and imbalanced game mode).

You cant even play all professions. Class diversity??? ROFL

So what we get for our money? False promises…
What i paid for is a big pvp MORPG, i paid that money almost a year ago… Did i get what i paid for?

NO

In the meantime, I have seen so many changes in pve… new seasonal game modes, new instances, and after that even more changes and now bug fixes for new PVE instance.

A few days ago I stopped playing.

p.s. In my country it is forbidden to deliberately deceive the customer (we have Customer Protection Law).

The thing to take away from what Jonathan wrote is that they are working on it. Because it actually means >they are working on it<, which is to say; it will be released. The only question is whether or not you want to wait for it. But that’s something ArenaNet doesn’t have any control over.

The only thing I was wondering about after reading Jonathans post, is why they aren’t planing to do anything to get the community into this, right now. I mean, all this content is great and exciting, but what value does it have if there’s no one to support it, once it’s released? I think you guys (ArenaNet) need to come up with a short term plan, that focuses on getting the community into sPvP. It could be anything as simple as hosting some “professional” tournament matches on your twitch channel, add some form of exclusive PvE awards in sPvP, or even just adding sPvP to the monthly PvE achievement? Basically, anything you can to bring more focus on sPvP, and prepare players for the upcoming content. If you release this content first, and then begin to focus on the community afterwards, it’s going to take twice as long to get players involved. If you want sPvP to succeed this year, you have to be one step ahead. PvP has, and always will be, about the community first. Because if there’s no one to support and play the game, it doesn’t matter how good it is.

Authority.4386:

We need separated solo queue and premade queue.
Without this being implemented, we are losing crushing majority of tPvPers in both free and paid turnaments.

Top priority.

This!

It’s frustrating enough to pug frees anyway. Now if you allow premades to farm pugs for rating/ranking in the next patch, you might as well tell your soloers to find a new game.

Any kind of rating/ranking system that does not offer separate queues for pugs and premades is a deal breaker.

I like to play in group with my guild, but sometimes I like to be the “pug”, i think the changes are not nothing special for the individual player, this game has so much potencial! Like duel system in a game like this (no healers-no tanks=good matching), will fit perfect, fun to the pugs, fun to the guild mates. Solo, 2v2 and 3v3 queues would be simple and amazing! In the end we want to have fun

Aragiel.6132:

I dont think that adjusting entry fee in paid tournaments or any different kind of adjusting will require some “serious” coding. Actually these are numbers in databases and program call them via variables..
And speaking about adjustments there is few options what Anet can do fast in order to try FORCE premades to play against PREMADES and leave solo players in better enviroment where they compette against other solo players.
Yes im speaking free tournaments vs paids. If there is adjustment done, then paids can be pretty much used as premade queue while free is solo queue.
coding? no..
options?
1) decrease entry fee of paids
2) increase free rewards in terms of tickets gains
3) adjust crafting of tournaments tickets so its easier to craft one

The only thing what prevents them to do so is because there are probably some players that spends money for buying tickets.. and if thats the reason then .. well.. then we are in pretty bad position. Altought i dont know who would be that stu-…pid to spend real money for tickets..

Sifting through thousands of line of code to make adjustments isn’t easy and there’s always the risk that something can get messed up in the change. It’s common that patches introduce new bugs through errors and conflicts in code changes. It’s simply not a quick and easy thing to do.

In any case, none of what you’ve said applies to the list Sharp posted. It’s simply your own personal wishlist. That’s not to say that those issues don’t need to be addressed but they’re not the most pressing things on the agenda at all.

Wooyadeen.6491:

Anet’s big pvp game without pvp (there is one abandoned and imbalanced game mode).

You cant even play all professions. Class diversity??? ROFL

So what we get for our money? False promises…
What i paid for is a big pvp MORPG, i paid that money almost a year ago… Did i get what i paid for?

NO

In the meantime, I have seen so many changes in pve… new seasonal game modes, new instances, and after that even more changes and now bug fixes for new PVE instance.

A few days ago I stopped playing.

p.s. In my country it is forbidden to deliberately deceive the customer (we have Customer Protection Law).

GW2 is both PvE and PvP regardless of what your personal take on what the game should focus on is.

The vague legal threat is silly since there’s plenty of content to justify what you paid for and pretty much nothing to substantiate your claim of being lied to.

Dsquaredcri.9421:

So Jonathan, the week is almost over, do you have news?

It’s too good to tell us, he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise…

It’s pointless to get angry about any of it anymore, it’s not going to make a difference. They’re going to do what they are going to do on their time. The only thing we can control is whether or not we stay with the game.

Recently.1043:

They can’t make money off of sPvP so they really don’t seem to care that much.

I find myself logging in less and less now, even sPvP becomes boring now (and i quit pve awhile back as well) Very little incentive to play anymore with the sPvP basically left to rot away, don’t think i’ll last till the next update at this rate. They really dropped the ball on addressing sPvP, but in the end it was probably the correct financial decision for them; it would take alot more effort to go the esports route to make money, than it would be to go the micro-transaction pve route.

Thats not true. Myself and lots others play pve AND PVP. Without a decent pvp game I (and others) will quit and you will have less people buying gems etc for pve.

The simple, simple fact is any successful MMO has something in it for everyone. Hell I knew a guy who only logged onto WOW to fish. The game NEEDS OPTIONS to maintain a large player base.

MaXi.3642:

Mange.8324:

I can’t blame anyone in here for the pessimistic attitude towards this “update”. My biggest concern is getting past the things he listed so some new content can actually be enjoyed, you know like maybe a DIFFERENT GAME MODE?

you know they cant do everything at once right? and if they are working on these few features, they cant make new modes at the same time… just be patient and wait until one thing is done, then ask another one

People are more than patient. What in the world!? You say we need to wait more than a few days. WE HAVE! Its been going on 5+ months! 5 months and nothing to show for it.

So, the announced anouncement is still missing, huh?

^Next week we’ll have more news.

If we don’t get solo queue/ladder in february at least, I’m afraid PvP wont be able to revive anymore .

butch.8136:

^Next week we’ll have more news.

How do you know?

You will have some news when it is ready, do not create false hope for people : ]]

Lukin.4061:

You will have some news when it is ready, do not create false hope for people : ]]

I’ll come back to GW2. When it’s ready.

I’m certain that people will come back to gw2 pvp if a good update comes out. At least I will.

I used to be impatient, but now I realise Arenanet has just gotten a lot of constructive criticism on the tournament system as a whole. I think they were planning a major update for February anyway, so I really expect they want to do this right and not just quickly implement something that isn’t as good as we want it to be. The matchmaking which they are making, requires a lot of things to consider. (Sharp said he wanted it to be based on not only score but also damage dealt, amount healed, conditions inflicted, damage taken, etc…) I can only imagine what time it would take to balance that out over the professions so that the score that comes out is based on skill level and not profession.

And the new/modified tournament system they want to implement, heavily depends on this matchmaking. You can’t just change the way tourneys work for 2 weeks, and then implement a new patch that changes everything again. That would most likely kitten off players.

So I only have one message for Arenanet: Take your time, but do it right and prove once again you are expectional developers.

Ashumet out.

LuC.3591:

The thing is that J. Sharp begins his commentary hoping we had a great break…, no Jonathan, we have beeing here playing your game for several hours each day while you were out and while you left your work undone for a pair of weeks (beacuase seems nobody cares about sPvP from Anet but you)…

The problem here is that we have a feel of abandon… a feel that any small change on sPvP system take 3-4 months to be achieved… seems a problem of spend money and resources on PvP area… we, on the pvp community, are less each day, and seems there will be worthless any investment on this area each passing day.

If you want an e-sport you need to dedicate more resources NOW, not in 6 months… when the lack of people playing your game would start to be a problem.

Flaming people for taking a time off work in the holiday season? Really?

Dsquaredcri.9421:

butch.8136:

^Next week we’ll have more news.

How do you know?

‘Cus Colin stated in other threads that we’ll have a blog post next week containing their plans for the next 6 months. I don’t think that only consists out of pve as they’ve always said there will be big chunks of pvp content coming febr/march.

Ashumet.8674:

I’m certain that people will come back to gw2 pvp if a good update comes out. At least I will.

I used to be impatient, but now I realise Arenanet has just gotten a lot of constructive criticism on the tournament system as a whole. I think they were planning a major update for February anyway, so I really expect they want to do this right and not just quickly implement something that isn’t as good as we want it to be. The matchmaking which they are making, requires a lot of things to consider. (Sharp said he wanted it to be based on not only score but also damage dealt, amount healed, conditions inflicted, damage taken, etc…) I can only imagine what time it would take to balance that out over the professions so that the score that comes out is based on skill level and not profession.

And the new/modified tournament system they want to implement, heavily depends on this matchmaking. You can’t just change the way tourneys work for 2 weeks, and then implement a new patch that changes everything again. That would most likely kitten off players.

So I only have one message for Arenanet: Take your time, but do it right and prove once again you are expectional developers.

Ashumet out.

I agree that a lot of people will come back if they do a good PvP patch.

The only issue here is that “good” is subjective. A large amount of people are waiting for them to do away with the Tournament system and add 1v1 team matchmaking, which would bring a lot of them back.

But there is also a large amount of the community, especially GW1 players, that quit the game a long time ago because GW2’s style of PvP is so different from the PvP Guild Wars was known for.

Personally I’ll be fairly satisfied with 1v1 team matchmaking, that would get me back on a regular basis as long as it didn’t have any major problems. But I can’t lie…. What I really want is that GW1 style PvP. I would be so happy if it’s just announced to be in the plans for the future somewhere.

But there are many people unlike me who won’t touch GW2 again without that style of PvP. The best possible thing to do to get players back would be to make both types of players happy.

Hello good sir,

I enjoy the game you have created. I would love to see matched 1v1/2v2/3v3 arenas. Please do this. Much appreciated. I will be waiting patiently.

EDIT: I mean 1v1 as in the amount of people playing against each other. At least allow duels.
Regards,

I would also like to point out that having a team of 5 is outdated. Even in WoW where there are 10 million players no one plays 5v5 (five players against five players). I feel that if gw2 provided at the minimum a 1v1 and 2v2 bracket (# of players vs # of players) they would find higher participation since it’s easier to find just one other player with similar experience and schedule as yours. Plus it would be fun.

agreed these devs need to do something quick. really spitting in the face of the pvp oriented playing gw2.

Is starting to become embarrassing little attention to the pvp … and the balance of the game has remained the same even if the community is clamoring many changes. programmers are abusing our patience and we are taking the kitten Any comments that do not go well is censored…..this game dying in pvp and no time to joke whit us because THE TIME ITS OVER!!!

Wow still no extremely detailed plan, ETA, etc…

ZenoSpyridon.1396:

Ashumet.8674:

I’m certain that people will come back to gw2 pvp if a good update comes out. At least I will.

I used to be impatient, but now I realise Arenanet has just gotten a lot of constructive criticism on the tournament system as a whole. I think they were planning a major update for February anyway, so I really expect they want to do this right and not just quickly implement something that isn’t as good as we want it to be. The matchmaking which they are making, requires a lot of things to consider. (Sharp said he wanted it to be based on not only score but also damage dealt, amount healed, conditions inflicted, damage taken, etc…) I can only imagine what time it would take to balance that out over the professions so that the score that comes out is based on skill level and not profession.

And the new/modified tournament system they want to implement, heavily depends on this matchmaking. You can’t just change the way tourneys work for 2 weeks, and then implement a new patch that changes everything again. That would most likely kitten off players.

So I only have one message for Arenanet: Take your time, but do it right and prove once again you are expectional developers.

Ashumet out.

I agree that a lot of people will come back if they do a good PvP patch.

The only issue here is that “good” is subjective. A large amount of people are waiting for them to do away with the Tournament system and add 1v1 team matchmaking, which would bring a lot of them back.

But there is also a large amount of the community, especially GW1 players, that quit the game a long time ago because GW2’s style of PvP is so different from the PvP Guild Wars was known for.

Personally I’ll be fairly satisfied with 1v1 team matchmaking, that would get me back on a regular basis as long as it didn’t have any major problems. But I can’t lie…. What I really want is that GW1 style PvP. I would be so happy if it’s just announced to be in the plans for the future somewhere.

But there are many people unlike me who won’t touch GW2 again without that style of PvP. The best possible thing to do to get players back would be to make both types of players happy.

I didn’t play GW1 before, so I have no idea what that style was like, though I suppose it had something to do with Guild versus Guild pvp, something that has now completely vanished from the game. In fact it’s a shame that a game called Guild Wars merely relies on the guild system as an extended friend list (imo).
That scale of battles has indeed completely vanished. World versus world indeed implements larger battles, but it doesn’t require any Guild cooperation. In fact, this kind of mass PvP is now organised on a server scale basis, and does not require guilds however. The squad system even encourages this. Mass zergs are the way to go.

But WvW is doing well atm. Everybody who plays it seems to love it and last time I did I was impressed by the great progression in strategy my server had made.

Regular PvP however, is still in experimental phase as I see it. Though I love the GW2 combat system for it’s dynamism, the repetitiveness of the kind of PvP we have now, is the main problem. A lot of players already know these maps and strategies so well, that there is nothing left to be discovered, and thus they get bored from playing the same games over and over again. It is only logical that decent PvP requires more maps, more game modes, more viable profession builds for it to get to an enjoyable and in the long term even an esport level. GW2 isn’t LoL, this dynamic combat style needs more variety so the main skills required are environmental adaptation and team support, not just getting used to playing a few maps over and over again with no variation in strategy whatsoever, because it seems that only one strategy is the best.

However, at this time, PvP seems to get little love from the developers compared to the amount of PvE content that was released. The time it would take to design some more decent maps can’t be this long compared to the time spent on Fractals for example. If the map isn’t good when released, it can always be modified later, but in the mean time the lack of variety can become frustrating. And 2 of the current maps aren’t even used in tournaments.

I still believe all of that will change in the future. But it will take more time than we like.

Look, im neither a pessimist nor an opptomist, but i feel some demands, are rediculous. i mean theres alot of ppl with real jobs and pressure from various angles, they cant drop everything and work on pvp. Ppl who post here may have demands or requests that the company simply cant satisfy. simply read this thread to find out the fact that not everyone agrees on the solutions, or heck, even the problems.

Having said that, i feel alot rides on this patch coming out in febuary.

I will recommend something to Johnathan that might increaes casual participation in spvp. Please allow experience and items for the overworld to be earned there. NOT in spvp land itself, where no gear /levels as variables. But if people could advance there toons in spvp, many cassuals would do it more frequently.

I myself dont really care about this, but alot of pvers in my guild and this is the #1 reason most of them dont spvp.

Additionally , since we can respec for free in HOTM, give us a ‘suit’ tab or something in the pvp lockers where we can save an alternative gear/trait utility spec, one click and we are respeced. YOu could give everyone 2 by default, and sell more on the black lion trading house, myb make money. that way everyone can have one active spec and one saved spec, or more than 1 saved spec if they want to pay for it.

REDUCE COST OF PAIDS.
And of course the stuff you already posted. I for one know a ladder will be tough to impliment and may not be a true elo.

Stop ask for 1v1 duels or 2v2. Go WOW if u wanna play this mode!

Anyway, we are still waiting other news from Mr. Jonathan Sharp

Just add in solo/duo queue and a queue for 5 man teams.

I just jumped back into PvP after taking a month hiatus, and nothing has changed. If you play free tourneys solo and get matched with 4 random team mates you will never win against a semi organised pre-made 5 man team. Just the lack of voice communication in-game makes it impossible to co-ordinate with a random team (save a few pings/target calls). The mini-map in this game does not give you much information especially compared to a game like LoL where playing with random team mates is easily done. From the mini-map you see where your team mates are, and from the party overlay you see their health. You can therefore determine if they are in a battle or not, however you cannot see who they are fighting with, how many they are fighting, if they need help etc. All these advantages belong to a 5 man pre-made, making any attempts to win by a solo-queue player complete in vain.

The lack of ladders and queue options is such a ridiculous oversight given the current competing esports titles and their functionality. I was really expecting so much more having put thousands of hours into GW1. Getting to the top 10 on the Hero Battles ladder and competing in various top 100 guilds I was hoping for a similar experience. However, myself and my friends from GW1 have not found that and it’s disappointing.

Oh.
I’m a bit confused. Just got Jonathan Sharp is like 20 yo.
What are you talking about guys? I don’t think he played many teamplay competitive games and got a clue from each one. Otherwise we already got strong spvp system with custom arens, rankings, spectator mods etc. Just gugl wtf is “competitive”. So stop being maniacs and think more realistic :>

Game = bussiness. It must earn money and i’m sure spvp doesnt make Anet rich. With no option. I just thinking what pve content will come.

So Jonathan, any news? 6 months have passed and sPvP didn’t receive even a stupid update. The game is becoming boring… farming hotjoin (zerg) and tourneys (free&paid) all day long is not funny. add something new pl0x

So there is still no message from Jonathan? WTF is this, i guess this is a sign that they have no clue or manpower to do anything.

rtnieuwboer.6071:

So there is still no message from Jonathan? WTF is this, i guess this is a sign that they have no clue or manpower to do anything.

He did make a post in this thread. Idk y peopel expect specifics, or how hard it is for these guys to give those details. Anytihng they promise -timeline, changes etc, if they cant deliver it immediately causes the community to freak out even more.

I hope for specifics soon, but he cant coment till its a sure thing. And thats not entirely his fault. its a resources issue.

but, i will say this. SPVP NEEDS RESOURCES PUT ON IT.

As a main french GW2 shoutcasters duo (The [MEOW]Cast), me and my “collegue” are dying for a spectator mode… And the french community that was excited by “GW2 + eSport” is slowly losing interest into the game, because of the lack of eSport tools and efficient matchmaking+reward system… You NEED to release spec mode, LoL type Matchmaking, solo q, duo q, and 5q ASAP.
If you wish to make of GW2 an eSport game, you must act quick, because the SPvP is dying right now, and I hope you’re aware of this. Half a year, and still not a single competition, barely any showmatch (which are a pain in the * to organize and shoutcast)…

I really hope you guys @ ArenaNet will strenghten this aspect of the game as soon as possible, because it would be a complete WASTE if not ! The game is awesome and has a lot of potential for eSport we all (almost) agree about that.

isnt there a fear spectator mode will lead to voip cheating?

I don’t have a team… played other games in regular premades for ten years though.

Love the hotjoin sPvP… I just do. It’s fllippin pandemonium in there and non stop mash-up. Great stress relief.

If they add solo (and ideally a duo as there is usually one other person around who’d like to duo) queuing for tournaments, I would be playing those all the time… sounds like great fun.

1vs1 as an official game mode is dumb, however them supporting duel arenas so that people can pratice for when u stuck in 1on1 fights, or what to do thats useful.
But 1on1 is NOT balanced and therefore no official game mode can be made around this.

The following post made by Warskull taken from Team Quitter forums explains in a nutshell the underlying reasons as to why GW2 pvp cannot take off in its current state, and never will either:

First off, the damage is already done. They already drove off the largest PvP player base they will ever have. It will take more than some new features to bring people back. Once a player walks, even if you pull a miracle patch out of your kitten they likely will not come back. They have moved on, they found a different game to satisfy their PvP needs and they are invested in that game. They have no investment left in your game. Growing a game post release is hard, very hard. You are far better off maintaining your player base in the first place.

Second, do not expect any of these features in a reasonable time frame. February at the soonest, maybe March or April. They will also be incomplete when they arrive. The patches to get them fully functional will be 3 months down the road (just look at fractals.)

Third, they completely fail to address the deeper issues with the gameplay. Skills in GW1 were interesting to use. They did things, they required thought. Skills in GW2 are boring and button mashy. The PvP is not of particularly high quality.

They will need a stunt like completely free PvP to pull players back in.

Remember most games have a lifespan. How long it takes the players to dig into the game and realize its flaws. For players to realize they have seen all it has to offer. GW2 PvP may have already exceeded that lifespan.

The reason I quoted that post here is because it is one of the more lengthy (read: explanatory) replies to the OP posted on Team Quitter that sheds light on some very valid fundamental/core issues plaguing GW2 pvp.
Most of us stopped bothering with all the explanations, really, and my own reply on the destiny of GW2 pvp reflects that:

/gets a needle
/pops the dream bubble that is the post (the OP) above

At the end, they might pull of some sort of a miracle. But it will in all likelihood be much too late by the time that happens, and that’s really disheartening.

My main thing is…and it’s surprising, it’s like the dev’s just don’t care. The lack of communication, the lack of support, the lack of anything fun, the lack of following what the playerbase wants. It’s as if they see and know the game is sinking but are unwilling or unable to do what is needed to keep the game afloat.

This is 2013…how long ago did they invent public polls online…a place where the masses can vote, something would be better than just assuming that two or three individuals at some office building magically know what’s best for the game they expect people to want to play.

Here’s the thing…fixing mistakes is easy — but admitting a mistake was made is hard. No one is mad because of the mistakes that were made, but they are mad that there was never an admission or even an attempt to fix what was broken … not to mention a complete lack of communication.

deapee.7516:

My main thing is…and it’s surprising, it’s like the dev’s just don’t care. The lack of communication, the lack of support, the lack of anything fun, the lack of following what the playerbase wants. It’s as if they see and know the game is sinking but are unwilling or unable to do what is needed to keep the game afloat.

This is 2013…how long ago did they invent public polls online…a place where the masses can vote, something would be better than just assuming that two or three individuals at some office building magically know what’s best for the game they expect people to want to play.

Here’s the thing…fixing mistakes is easy — but admitting a mistake was made is hard. No one is mad because of the mistakes that were made, but they are mad that there was never an admission or even an attempt to fix what was broken … not to mention a complete lack of communication.

That’s what makes it so much more annoying, as if they know our woes but disregard them completely.

The devs dont care? ridiculous

This is my fifth mmo. This is the fifth time i have read people post that ad nasuem on the respective game forums.

Trust me, they care. They are just limited in what they can do and say. And the community doesnt have universal demands, so what direction to go isnt always obvious. or what to prioritize.
it takes time for them to figure out some ways to go.

KarlaGrey.5903:

The following post made by Warskull taken from Team Quitter forums explains in a nutshell the underlying reasons as to why GW2 pvp cannot take off in its current state, and never will either:

First off, the damage is already done. They already drove off the largest PvP player base they will ever have. It will take more than some new features to bring people back. Once a player walks, even if you pull a miracle patch out of your kitten they likely will not come back. They have moved on, they found a different game to satisfy their PvP needs and they are invested in that game. They have no investment left in your game. Growing a game post release is hard, very hard. You are far better off maintaining your player base in the first place.

Second, do not expect any of these features in a reasonable time frame. February at the soonest, maybe March or April. They will also be incomplete when they arrive. The patches to get them fully functional will be 3 months down the road (just look at fractals.)

Third, they completely fail to address the deeper issues with the gameplay. Skills in GW1 were interesting to use. They did things, they required thought. Skills in GW2 are boring and button mashy. The PvP is not of particularly high quality.

They will need a stunt like completely free PvP to pull players back in.

Remember most games have a lifespan. How long it takes the players to dig into the game and realize its flaws. For players to realize they have seen all it has to offer. GW2 PvP may have already exceeded that lifespan.

The reason I quoted that post here is because it is one of the more lengthy (read: explanatory) replies to the OP posted on Team Quitter that sheds light on some very valid fundamental/core issues plaguing GW2 pvp.
Most of us stopped bothering with all the explanations, really, and my own reply on the destiny of GW2 pvp reflects that:

/gets a needle
/pops the dream bubble that is the post (the OP) above

At the end, they might pull of some sort of a miracle. But it will in all likelihood be much too late by the time that happens, and that’s really disheartening.

That is incorrect. The MMO genre has the luxury of expansions to solve problems tied to a specific part with the game if said game was successful enough to warrant it which GW2 does.

GW2 WvWvW is awesome and the best of its kind on the market, the PvE and exploration is top notch for anyone not looking for item/stats progression. The PvP is not supreme, but still very good in a more casual approach.

A good/pro PvP patch a few weeks prior to an official add-on can completely turn it around for this game or any other MMO. A big enough community still playing can pull back in people who previously left, especially if said people who left liked the game as a whole and just found one part lacking. They will be the first to come back once they are told everything is now as they wanted AND there is a full add-on of new stuff to try out.

This game is still one of the top 10 core PC games played online daily in EU/US (aside from Facebook). Don’t underestimate its community.

spvp will only turn around with a complete rework of the meta to include more viable specs in the current roles. new features will bring people back, but good core gameplay will keep them. the Mists explode with activity after every new balance patch. it usually lasts for about a week, then people leave once they realize it’s more of the same old.

what im saying is, it’s possible and somewhat easy to get people back. will they make the right moves to keep players? only if meta is significantly improved, in addition to the new features in Feb.

daydream.2938:

Trust me, they care. They are just limited in what they can do and say. And the community doesnt have universal demands, so what direction to go isnt always obvious. or what to prioritize.
it takes time for them to figure out some ways to go.

I think you could be right but unfortunately, half the people left, another half are barely hanging on, and no one wants to play an empty game. So it is what it is…soon everyone will have moved on.

the ones who have left always come back when a new patch hits, and they’ll keep coming back. id like to see ANet working toward actually keeping people.

I’ll probably be back-“ish” if they improve pvp in this game in a patch. However, my friends most likely wont. They were sceptical at start with the pvp game mode and while they did have some fun with it in the beginning, the other flaws of the game (bugs, lack of differences in build options, lack of updates and communication, balance) they finally didnt bother to play anymore. We all play other games now, but if coming back I will do it alone and most likely spend majority of my little game time in other games and just a little in GW2. That’s why I hope that there will be better ways to progress solo.
I think only thing that would make my friends consider coming back and try a little is new game modes, but that involves also that bugs finally are gone and some proper balance implemented. This game need to start rewarding skill a bit more, and many of the builds in game right now doesn’t really reward it.

The road is long to get there, and even though there’s no serious competition in mmorpg pvp being released this year I’d say it’s better if ANet really bust their energy on trying to catch and bring back players who enjoy competitive pvp in mmorpgs, because as soon as some serious competitor start smelling launch, and manage to pull things off in a better way there will be no more chances for ANet to recover spvp in this game. Please make best use of your time, there is no better timing than now.

RamzaBehoulve.5640:

That is incorrect. The MMO genre has the luxury of expansions to solve problems tied to a specific part with the game if said game was successful enough to warrant it which GW2 does.

Those expansions are more likely to add things that will make everything even worse (more gear threadmill, possibly new skills that will only make the balance worse, new proffessions that will likely do the same). If anything, expansions create new problems (especially in pvp, and especially if pvp wasn’t that solid prior to the new release), and they most definitely don’t really solve problems. As for pve who cares. The grind and the repetition forced onto players isn’t going away in either case.

RamzaBehoulve.5640:

GW2 WvWvW is awesome and the best of its kind on the market, the PvE and exploration is top notch for anyone not looking for item/stats progression. The PvP is not supreme, but still very good in a more casual approach.

I fail to see the awesomeness, really. It might be the best there is, but only because the rest is even worse, and most definitely not because it’d be an amazing design per say. I’m not one for zerging (a mechanic that is just stupid and filled with lag fests, if you don’t own a brand new pc capable of handling all that cluster fk), and neither am I one for grinding boring and repetitive dungeons for good gear, which is pretty much a must in wvw, unless you don’t mind seeing those massive numbers pop up above your head and in return only see meagre numbers when dealing damage. Also, changing builds in pve is so insanely expensive (for a casual or pvp-oriented person) it is pointless to even consider it, if you aren’t the type to sacrifice brain tissue in the name of grind.
Moreover, what is there top notch in PvE exporation? The very same model and approaches are used in virtually every zone with different mobs and slightly different environment. It’s just excruciating boring, and ‘dynamic’ events attest to the fact there isn’t anything really dynamic about the game, sadly.

RamzaBehoulve.5640:

A good/pro PvP patch a few weeks prior to an official add-on can completely turn it around for this game or any other MMO. A big enough community still playing can pull back in people who previously left, especially if said people who left liked the game as a whole and just found one part lacking. They will be the first to come back once they are told everything is now as they wanted AND there is a full add-on of new stuff to try out.

As the post I quoted mentions, those patches come at a slug’s pace, and are usually incomplete/come with new bugs and therefore necesitate further work, which normally expands over the next few months. How that will turn around anything is beyond me.

RamzaBehoulve.5640:

This game is still one of the top 10 core PC games played online daily in EU/US (aside from Facebook). Don’t underestimate its community.

And that speaks the world about the current state of core PC games.

I’m not ‘underestimating’ the community. I know quite well most like the game as it is, also because they never experienced GW at its finest, or even after that.
It’s not so much that I want a genuine continuation of GW, or that I’m severely prejudiced against GW2 because of that (I certainly am to a healthy extent).
I did give GW2 a try. I have two level 80 characters (holy kitten), and I’m rank 30 in pvp. And yet here I am, trying to figure out why I bothered wasting all that time to start with. The game brings nothing to the table – it feels empty and detached; it is a desperate attempt to make something ‘new and innovative’ that fell flat because it was neither a novelty, nor special in its genre (bar for some minor things). All the grind they claimed to have ‘removed’ was merely ‘relocated’. And all this ‘best’ they claimed to have taken from GW was thrown out the window a long time ago.

Splitting up my post, because it seems to have hit the character limit.

Unlike GW2, GW really was innovative, and its pvp developed way beyond Anet’s wildest expectations. But it was an instance of gradual evolution of a good basic concept, and it was evolving bottom-up – in GW2 they tried to force a top-down approach, and it fell flat, more so because the basic features coudln’t be added in time (rushed release ftl) to support their misplaced approach at game’s release.

But hey, as I said. Miracles do happen, and I do still log on once per day. But I spend more time on GW than GW2, and only really log GW2 to chat or do pvp daily (but I’m questioning the point of that too).

Does that mean the game isn’t, or cannot be fun? Absolutely not. The right people can make the worst of things at least tolerable, if not somewhat fun. But the game gives very little emphasis on (and even actively takes a step away from) the community part of the playing experience, and from community itself…and that’s just messed up.